Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

<ul class="summary-list"><li>In August 1942, US Marine Raiders conducted the first amphibious attack ever launched from submarines.</li><li>Advances in technology since then have allowed commandos to conduct far more complex submarine operations.</li><li>Submarine operations are a great way to deploy special-operations forces, but they're still tough to pull off.</li></ul><p>August marked the 79th anniversary of the first special-operations raid directly supported by submarines.</p><p>Decades later, submarine special-operations have become a staple of the <keyword id="12101901" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="navy-seal" source="Orion">Navy SEAL</keyword> Teams and one of the US military's most valuable capabilities.</p><h2>The first underwater commandos</h2><div type="image" title="US Marines on USS Nautilus before Makin Island raid" height="538" width="800" msid="86294012" hostid="261"></div><p>In August 1942, US Marine Raiders conducted the first amphibious attack ever launched from submarines.</p><p>During the raid on Makin Island, the USS Nautilus and USS Argonaut landed 200 Marine commandos on the small Japanese-held island with the goal of destroying enemy installations, capturing prisoners, and gathering intelligence.</p><p>Although the raid was neither a success nor a failure - the Marine Raiders achieved some objectives but failed on others - it paved the way for future special operations from submarines.</p><h2>Submarine operations</h2><div type="image" title="US Marines on USS Argonaut before Makin Island raid" height="659" width="800" msid="86294014" hostid="261"></div><p>Since <keyword id="11938566" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="world-war-ii" source="Orion">World War II</keyword>, advances in submarine and combat diving technology have allowed for far more complex submarine operations involving commandos.</p><p>Nowadays, submarines don't have to surface to land special operators, as they did during the <keyword id="12117298" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="makin-island-raid" source="Orion">Makin Island raid</keyword>, and can instead deploy commandos while submerged.</p><p>Submarine operations can be used to ferry a special-operations team close to a target without leaving a trace, making them the perfect starting point for a special reconnaissance, direct action, sabotage, hostage rescue, or personnel recovery operations.</p><p><keyword id="12101902" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="navy-seals" source="Orion">Navy SEALs</keyword>, the maritime component of US Special Operations Command, are the natural choice for such operations. From the start, SEAL training emphasizes the water element, and all SEALs get advanced underwater training.</p><p>But Navy SEALs aren't the only special-operations unit in the US military that can launch from submarines. For example, Army Special Forces <keyword id="12117299" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="combat-diver" source="Orion">combat diver</keyword> teams also train and conduct submarine operations.</p><div type="image" title="Navy submarine lock-out escape trunk" height="1409" width="2000" msid="86294016" hostid="261"></div><p>The difference between the two units, however, is that Green Berets use combat diving as an insertion method - a way to the target - whereas Navy SEALs can also conduct direct action or sabotage operations at sea after launching from a submarine.</p><p>Some submarine operations can last for long periods of time. The special-operations contingent aboard can be underway for days, weeks, or even months.</p><p>For example, during the Falklands War in the South Atlantic, British Special Boat Service commandos - the UK equivalent of SEAL Team Six - spent several weeks on submarines as they deployed from the UK to the Falklands to begin operations against Argentina.</p><p>When underway, the special-operations element will usually "make do" - sleeping, eating, planning, and working out wherever there is a little spare room, such as in the torpedo room.</p><h2>Rife with danger</h2><div type="image" title="Naval Special Warfare and Navy SEAL diver on submarine" height="1328" width="2000" msid="86294019" hostid="261"></div><p>To prepare for submarine operations, Navy SEALs and other commandos with a maritime specialty conduct realistic training exercises, such as escape trunk drills in pools or reservoirs and dockside training on moored submarines.</p><p>Escape trunk drills are very important. Combat divers and submariners are placed in a spherical trunk about 6 feet tall that is flooded with water almost to the nose level. The trunk is placed at the bottom of the pool or reservoir. The person inside can breathe but can't do much more.</p><p>Then the trunk's hatch is opened to flood the last few inches, immersing the person inside and forcing him to swim 30 feet or 40 feet to the surface. This drill is used to simulate escaping from a sunk submarine.</p><p>"Submarine operations are always tricky and dangerous. You can't get complacent regardless how many platoons you have under your belt. But they are also very useful for several contingencies," a former Navy SEAL officer told Insider.</p><p>"Locking out and locking in - respectively, exiting and reentering a submerged submarine - are tricky affairs, especially if conducted in the dead of night. The ocean can get pretty dark at night. You can't even see your hand in front of your face, [it's] that dark," the former officer said.</p><p>"That's why we always operate in pairs, and operators are tied together by a rope. But these procedures are important, and we must master them for they allow us to infiltrate and exfiltrate clandestinely," the former officer added.</p><div type="image" title="Naval Special Warfare diver on Navy submarine" height="3011" width="2000" msid="86294021" hostid="261"></div><p>During lock-out and lock-in operations, Navy SEALs and other combat divers enter a specially designed room on top of the submarine, called the "lockout trunk," with their scuba gear. Then, the trunk slowly floods with water to match the outside water pressure.</p><p>Once that pressure is reached, the commandos open the hatch and swim out of the trunk, retrieving mission-essential gear from boxes fitted to the submarine's hull. The submarine remains underwater but close to the surface because the lower pressure there allows the commandos to operate.</p><p>"During a lockout operation, you have to be careful with the air levels, ensuring that the air supply within the trunk doesn't become over-polluted with CO2, because that can prove deadly or compromise the mission by emitting bubbles the enemy can pick up on sonar. It's a delicate process," the former Navy SEAL officer said.</p><p>In a conflict with China or Russia, submarine operations are a great way to deploy special-operations forces close to an enemy target.</p><p>The South China Sea, where Beijing is building and fortifying scores of man-made islands, or the Black Sea, where Moscow is turning Crimea into a fortress, would be ideal environments for such operations.</p><p><em>Stavros Atlamazoglou is a defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate.</em></p>

79 years after the first submarine-launched commando raid, Navy SEALs say it hasn't gotten any easier

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Recent US Navy-Marine Corps drills highlight an overlooked method of getting operators on target.</li><li>The drills involved Marines launching from submarines, which can be done on the surface or underwater.</li></ul><p>Recent drills involving US Navy submarines and Marine Corps special operators in the Pacific and the Mediterranean highlight an overlooked insertion and exfiltration method that would be relevant in a conflict with China.</p><p>In early 2021, Force Recon Marines conducted <a href="https://www.dvidshub.net/news/388401/uss-ohio-conducts-joint-operations-with-marine-corps-element-near-okinawa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a rare training</a> with USS Ohio near Okinawa, and earlier this year US Marines trained with USS Georgia in the Mediterranean "<a href="https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7110976/tf-61-2-marines-training-with-uss-georgia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to synchronize</a>" Navy and Marine Corps operations.</p><p>Although <keyword id="12002679" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="submarine" source="Orion">submarine</keyword> operations are mostly associated with Navy SEALs or US Army Green Beret combat divers, Marine special operators have a long history of submarine operations — Marine Raiders were the first US military unit to conduct a submarine-borne raid, attacking <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/navy-seals-explain-why-submarine-launched-commando-raids-are-tough-2021-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Makin Island in the Pacific in August 1942</a>.</p><h2>Submarine operations</h2><div type="image" title="Marine Corps boats Navy submarine Ohio" height="1344" width="2000" msid="92600033" hostid="261" sizebytes="137444"></div><p>The main benefit of using submarines for exfiltration and infiltration of special-operations forces is the difficulty of detecting them.</p><p>Getting to the fight on a submarine is considerably more discreet than arriving on an MH-60 Black Hawk helicopter or jumping from an MC-130 Combat Talon airplane. If the infiltration and exfiltration are performed properly, the adversary may never know that US commandos and the sub carrying them were there.</p><p>Submarine operations allow "Recon Marines and Raiders to infiltrate undetected and conduct reconnaissance or raid missions with low probability of compromise," retired Marine Raider Maj. Fred Galvin told Insider.</p><div type="image" title="Marine Corps boats Navy submarine Ohio" height="1333" width="2000" msid="92600034" hostid="261" sizebytes="94754"></div><p>This allows those operators to carry out missions of a "strategic nature" but it also "affects the enemy's psychology in that they cannot easily defend against it and in order to defend against it they must commit massive personnel and material resources," added Galvin, who began his career in the Marine Reconnaissance community.</p><p>In the vastness of the Pacific, submarine operations could be very important in a conflict with China, allowing Marine special operators to conduct offensive and defensive operations.</p><p>"As the stand-in force in the first island chain, it is critical that Force Reconnaissance Marines are capable of being employed across a myriad of US Navy platforms in order to enhance the lethality of the fleet in the littoral environment," Maj. Daniel Romans, commander of the Force Recon company that trained with USS Ohio, said in a <a href="https://www.dvidshub.net/news/388401/uss-ohio-conducts-joint-operations-with-marine-corps-element-near-okinawa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press release</a>.</p><h2>How it's done and why it's risky</h2><div type="image" title="Naval Special Warfare and Navy SEAL diver on submarine" height="1328" width="2000" msid="92600036" hostid="261" sizebytes="158646"></div><p>However, as with most special-operations infiltration and exfiltration methods, submarine operations come with a lot of risk. Combat diving generally has significant physical risk, which only increases when a nuclear-powered submarine is involved.</p><p>"The risks include significant physiological risks while conducting submarine lock in, lock out and closed-circuit diving operation due to complicated pressure changes in the operation," said Galvin, who is author of "<a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FFew-Bad-Men-Ambushed-Afghanistan%2Fdp%2F163758413X" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A Few Bad Men</a>," an account of the first Marine special operations combat deployment to Afghanistan and how it overcame attacks from all sides.</p><p>The lock-in and lock-out technique is used to get operators into and out of a submerged submarine undetected by enemy eyes or sensors. The Navy has a certain number of submarines with specially designed "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-navy-seals-swim-out-of-a-submarine-2017-12" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lock-out trunks</a>."</p><div type="image" title="Navy submarine lock-out escape trunk" height="1409" width="2000" msid="92600037" hostid="261" sizebytes="140600"></div><p>At the release point, the operators enter the lock-out trunk wearing their scuba gear and the truck is flooded to match the outside water pressure. Once the appropriate pressure is reached, the operators open the trunk's hatch and head to their target, taking with them any necessary gear, such as inflatable boats.</p><p>Throughout this procedure, the submarine remains submerged but close to the surface.</p><p>During lock-out operations, commandos have to be very careful with their air levels and ensure that the air in the trunk doesn't have too much carbon dioxide, which can be deadly for the operators and compromise the mission, as too much of the gas can create bubbles that an adversary can pick up with sonar.</p><p>Lock-outs are no piece of cake, and lots can go wrong during the process, especially when there are operational restrictions — for example, operating at night and the general need for secrecy.</p><div type="image" title="Navy submarine Georgia Marine Corps boats" height="1329" width="2000" msid="92600040" hostid="261" sizebytes="331872"></div><p>Mistakes under those conditions "can result in convulsions, hypoxia, decompression sickness, as well as becoming disoriented, navigational errors, exhaustion, oxygen toxicity, severe cramps (especially during cold-weather diving operations) and equipment malfunctions, which can lead to not being able to have the entire team continue the subsurface mission," Galvin said.</p><p>Some of those side effects can appear after the subsurface phase of the infiltration or exfiltration and can even lead to long-term effects for the operators affected.</p><p>Submarine-borne infiltration and exfiltration "has one of the highest operational-risk assessments of all special-operations missions and requires highly trained, specialized diving medical technicians, diving medical officers to operate decompression chambers, and training on submarine chamber operations," Galvin added.</p><p><em>Stavros Atlamazoglou is a defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate.</em></p>

Recent drills with US Navy missile subs show how Marine special operators would get to the frontline in a fight against China

You Searched For "makin island raid" and got 2 results

79 years after the first submarine-launched commando raid, Navy SEALs say it hasn't gotten any easier

Stavros Atlamazoglou

Recent drills with US Navy missile subs show how Marine special operators would get to the frontline in a fight against China

Stavros Atlamazoglou

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides